Summer Can Be a Picnic for Restaurants

Getting together in the free-flowing air with our favorite people and wondering what will come out of the picnic basket or cooler creates great memories. Now restaurants and caterers help busy customers picnic more often, while keeping it all blissfully easy.

Picnic for two or 200?

From take-out picnics to summer picnicking corporate style, restaurants are getting more creative than ever. As every pro knows, the particulars matter.  Are your customers headed to the park or beach with a small picnic or to a venue that holds the entire company? Is on-site catering possible? If not, everything needs to be portable and made at your place, maybe supplementing with grills that are on site or that you bring in. Where can you set up a serving station? And what size is your working area? Is it buffet style or handheld noshing? So many questions, but all good ones. 

Think about creating your own handy picnic venue list to steer customers toward locations that thrill them and ensure your success too. Of course, getting from Point A to Point B means making sure that you’re stocked with portable catering equipment like drink carriers, food pan carriers, and other totable helpers.

Hand-Held Menu

Hand-held foods can be very helpful since an outdoor picnic is casual. It’s easy eating. And if it’s a little messy, no one cares. Think small plates, curated.

Also consider personal lunch boxes. You can prepare them ahead of time or offer them to guests to fill as they make their own choices. They’re disposable and re-usable during the event as folks go back for seconds. Or thirds because you’re that good. Plan on foods that travel at a common temperature and aren’t too fragile if you are pre-packing them.

Keep It Lively

Beyond food, helping customers pull off a theme can add to the celebration. You can also charge extra for decorations like sports, ocean, and safari motifs. Any of these ideas can be carried through in food, drinks, desserts, plates, napkins, and other accessories.  

Whether you’re catering off-site or on your restaurant patio, it’s also fun to get everyone in the summer spirit with activities like cornhole, dancing, bocce, lawn darts, croquet, kiddie pool fishing, or movie night under the stars.

Thinking Outside the Blanket 

Food Network says that Bumpa’s in Charleston, SC makes a beach picnic foolproof with “a beach umbrella and picnic basket to rent, filled with some of their favorite appetizers like hush puppies and pimento dip, plus cold bottles of water and some hand sanitizer. They’ll throw you a link to their custom playlist, “Bumpa’s Bytes,” so you have a seaside soundtrack, too.” Pretty cool! How can you help your restaurant customers make the most of summer? Other restaurants have blankets, picnic baskets and even picnic tables ready to loan, as well. 

Keeping That Picnic Vibe Going

Ready to create a picnic feeling at your own restaurant or catering venue long term? A strong patio enclosure can help without breaking the bank. You’ll want to consider important details that add to durability like corrosion-resistant hardware and heavy-duty zippers to ensure that whatever you choose is high quality. Staff experts with years of experience at Southern Patio Enclosures are happy to help you see how to make it happen. 

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This locally owned southern kitchen kicks out comfort food made from fresh ingredients at Firewheel Town Center. The staff and atmosphere get A+ reviews, as does the food. Favorites for those who say y’all include shrimp and grits and sweet tea chicken, not to mention cast iron mac and cheese and roasted corn succotash on the side. And don’t leave without trying their grilled peach ice cream made with Texas peaches and caramel sauce.

Tuesday Two for $25 offers are a dine-in special that’s a serious deal. Weekend mode includes brunch with a southern style biscuit board, chicken and pancakes, hanger with eggs, and more. Kids are welcomed with their own brunch plate.

Their covered outdoor patio and bar serves chef-inspired dishes along with their tasty signature drinks. We’re thrilled to have helped add an enclosure with manual vinyl shades that make every meal outside more comfortable. Our system allowed Wildwood to add a patio enclosure without going to the expense of installing extra columns or beams. Ask us how simple it can be to literally create more outdoor space for your restaurant or venue. And next time you’re near north Dallas, make sure you don’t miss what guests call a “hidden gem” and their “new favorite place.”

Restaurants that recognize trends succeed. And one of the more popular trends of the last decade is the Farm-to-Table movement. While definitions vary, it’s basically food made from locally sourced ingredients with a focus on organic. This trend, also known as Farm-to-Fork, started on the west coast. California chefs like Alice Waters tasted the local, organic difference and then celebrated it on her menu. After a slow build since its introduction in the 1970’s, this way of cooking has become even more popular. People who notice and care about the difference in flavor are willing to pay more for it.

Farm-to-Table Advantages

Nutrition and health take priority over convenience. Produce also simply tastes better because it doesn’t have to be frozen to be transported or preserved to prolong its life on a longer journey to the chopping block. Food this fresh and ripe is its own joy. There’s no need for a lot of spices and sauces to enhance or uplift flavor. A tomato off the vine in summer is nothing like a winter version.

Kinder to the Community

Farm-to-Table menus directly support local farmers and the local economy. You know where your food comes from and the people who are growing it. That’s integrity. It makes farmers feel like part of the restaurant team and allows them to get the credit they deserve for their role in an exceptional dining experience. It’s also gentle on the earth with less shipping and trucking needed. This means fewer greenhouse gasses, which reduces your carbon footprint as a business.

More Say for Restaurants

You can patronize farms that are ethically responsible – those farms free from GMOs and the ranchers who allow animals to be free-range and organic. This also allows restauranteurs to have more influence over the types of foods that are grown and raised. The farm-to-fork movement is also a trend that people go out of their way to seek out, offering you a way to stand out in a crowded category. So, it can be a great marketing tool.

Creativity and Commitment

For restaurants, this dedication to local is a lot more work. Sourcing ingredients year-round can be quite a challenge. You need to continually change recipes to match what’s available that day or week. Whatever is fresh and growing is what will appear on your menu.

Food this authentic costs more to source. Animals raised locally are especially expensive. So, this makes it harder for farm-to-table restaurants to succeed in settings where consumers may be more budget-conscious. To help offset that, some restaurants are now cutting out the middle man by buying the farm. They are literally operating their own supply chain – tapping their own maple trees for syrup, raising chickens for eggs, and growing their salad mixes from seed. And yet, even with these savings, it still costs more than buying products from a commercial distributer. But at the end of the day, the food looks more attractive, the meat tastes like it was raised better, and the farmers know that the work they put into every morsel is truly being appreciated and savored.

Set the Table at the Farm

Many restaurants who commit to local menus serve their fresh creations up in a natural setting. From upcycled barns to farm house restaurants in the country, the experience gets taken to greener spaces. Even if that’s not you, it’s simple to add more green no matter where your location is. A rooftop with a dedicated garden and trees can bring that feeling home. So can a patio that offers a beautiful view of the local scene. Think about materials that bring nature to the forefront.

We’re happy to offer expert suggestions for patio enclosures that enhance your environment. Custom color choices, window size and style of shades go a long way to creating a natural look. Our earth is worth protecting. Which is why, Farm-to-Table is a genuine gift to the restaurant scene that’s here to stay.

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Eating al fresco on a sunny patio on a beautiful, 75-degree day feels like heaven. While your chef can’t whip up custom weather, an enclosed patio can take the edge off as needed. Views and sun matter to guests. For restaurant owners, heating, and air conditioning costs impact profitability. And everybody, your servers and guests alike, want to be comfortable at your place. Do things right and every patio moment is golden.

Squint up before beginning.

You want to read the sun right. It sets hot in the west, which is why our patio enclosure experts pull out a compass before beginning. Taking cues from the way the sun moves throughout the day helps you choose the right materials for your screens.

Custom solutions for north, south, east, and west views.

Is your restaurant a breakfast spot that closes at 3? Do you deal with 2 or 6 months of summer? What materials are permanent in flooring and other surfaces that could impact how the sun affects your space? A custom designer considers options from every side.

A smart consideration is to use a sun shade for your restaurant’s western exposure. Then you can choose to let the sun in and expand views with more transparent materials on the other sides of your patio where the sun isn’t scorching.

You want solid, vinyl fabric that’s the strongest available – one that’s architectural grade and reinforced. Did you know that solid vinyl fabrics can be 3x as strong as fiberglass and hold onto 99% of their original strength even after 7 years in weather? Technology has come a long way to protect your investment.

Consult an expert for enlightened thinking.

Curious? Talk to a pro. If you’d like to expand your window screens to be as large as possible, our experts are happy to explain how to do it. Special construction with the heaviest bottom weight bar in the industry and a reinforced roll tube across the top now make it possible to have larger views than even a year ago. This unique offering, called MaxView, turns a patio into a shining star that produces income longer. And that’s the kind of exposure everybody really wants.

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“Reservations for four, please.” Once an ordinary phrase, hearing those words is now hard to take for granted. As we all make our way toward the post-COVID world, much about what the new restaurant norms will be is still taking shape. Though some changes feel like they’ll be with us indefinitely. Here are a few.

Reassurance around safety.

Restaurant guests want to know that you put their welfare first. Period. Your guests and staff will like hearing about the safety and cleaning steps that your restaurant takes to protect everybody. Visible signs of your concern and active measures that prove it get noticed. Seeing proper cleaning and placing inspection notices in a visible spot add up to confidence. What’s more, seating plans are likely forever changed after this time of social distancing. Fewer people are inclined to eat shoulder-to-shoulder with people they don’t know.

Digital everything.

Paperless menus are becoming more and more common. We’ve all become mildly OCD from all this. There’s less desire to touch anything that someone else has recently had in their hands. Contactless payment is now the way most of us expect to do things. What’s more, the face of many restaurants during COVID has been their website. Staying on top of your digital presence will be vital. People expect you to be up-to-date on everything from dining hours to food choices and safety policies. Open Table also advises that restaurants offer waitlists online and add outdoor tables to the floorplan to help get guests in again.

Take-out and delivery requests.

Folks will want a blend of choices for eating out or taking out. Many realize that fine-dining food isn’t always beautifully plated or the perfect temperature – and they’re ok with that some days. Though by now, chefs have fine-tuned menus that travel well and evolved successful options during the last year. Drive-through, pick-up lanes, curbside and home delivery are here to stay. With fewer people going back into an office regularly, that will likely help restaurants keep volume up.

Creativity.

Restaurants became very creative to survive. From selling their specialties in grocery stores to offering take-out cocktails, the strongest have adapted in ways no one could have predicted. It’s led to discovering new ideas to turn tables faster and other efficiencies that will continue, despite recent staffing challenges and supply chain disruption.

Community

This was here before and during COVID and will be with us for eternity. Connecting with friends and loved ones is a human need that had to be put aside during COVID. We’ve missed one another and the way we connect over food. It’s why we’ve always enjoyed gathering in restaurants and why restaurants with tables are coming back again. We’ll raise our forks to that.

An appreciation for outdoor dining.

From picnic tables in the parking lot to newly installed patios, restaurants have embraced fresh air to survive. Eating outdoors helped guests return and moved restaurant recovery forward. Now that guests have tasted the great outdoors, they want this restaurant option to be available permanently. Eating beside a heater doesn’t seem so strange. For many restaurants. temporary solutions may now be worth upgrading to become more permanent physical upgrades. Adding patios and deciding to enclose them are often smart business moves.

If you need help making a decision about enclosing your patio, feel free to reach out. We can help you sort out the kinds of protection that will work best in your climate, how to keep your guests comfortable across seasons, which solutions make the most sense for your budget and even how to finance your patio upgrade. Helping restaurants do high-quality patio improvements is what we do every day and we’re happy to share our insights. Our wish for the rest of 2021 is a return to the happiness of gathering around tables again and success for everyone who makes that possible.

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